1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to optical disc drives and, more particularly, to a tray loading/unloading apparatus of an optical disc drive.
2. Description of Related Art
Optical disc drives, such as video compact disc (VCD) players, digital versatile disc (DVD) players, or computer data disc reading/writing drives are widely used for recording information onto and/or reproducing information from discs.
Most optical disc drives use trays to load and unload discs. As shown in FIG. 7, a traditional optical disc drive 10 includes a tray 12, a set of gears 14, and a motor 16. The motor 16 connects to the set of gears 14 via a belt 18. The set of gears 14 meshes with a gear rack 122 formed on the tray 12.
The motor 16 drives the set of gears 14 to rotate via the belt 18, so as to bring the tray 12 to move linearly between a load position and an unload position. When the tray 12 is ejected out of the traditional optical disc drive 10 to the unload position, an optical disc (not shown) can be placed on/removed from the tray 12. When the tray 12 is inserted to the load position, the traditional optical disc drive 10 can reproduce/record information from/on the optical disc.
A moving speed of the tray 12 is determined by a rotational speed of the motor 16, and the rotational speed of the motor 16 is controlled by a voltage fed to the motor 16. In other words, the voltage determines the moving speed of the tray 12. Referring also to FIG. 8, a constant voltage is applied to drive the motor 16. In order to shorten a(n) loading/unloading time, the constant voltage is usually set to a relatively high voltage value. When the optical disc drive 10 starts loading the tray 12 from the unload position, the voltage applied to the motor 16 increases from zero to a relatively high voltage value instantaneously. Thus the motor 16 accelerates to a high rotational speed in a very short time, this may produce unwanted vibrations on the tray 12. Similarly, during the end of an unload process, the constant voltage is terminated instantaneously when the tray 12 reaches the unload position. Vibrations may also occur as the tray 12 stops instantly from a high speed in a short time.
Therefore, a loading/unloading apparatus which is capable of reducing the unwanted vibrations is desired.